If you believe in Smart work than Hard work, then this article is for you. Computer has been an essential part of our daily life as most of the world is Digital now, and major works rely on it, whether it be an office or home. While everyone knows how to operate a computer, only a few know the useful computer shortcut keys that can make your work more efficient & straightforward. We often look for these useful shortcut keys that can reduce our work strain and increase our productivity, but lack of knowledge increases our efforts. So, if you also want to save your time, you can save these useful computer shortcut keys for the future.
These shortcut keys are useful in many of our daily used programs & applications like Microsoft Office. Here we have categorized them for better understanding.

General & Most Used Computer Shortcut Keys:
- Ctrl + A – Use to Select all text
- Ctrl + C – Use to Copy the selected content
- Ctrl + N – To Open a new page/tab
- Ctrl + V – To Paste the selected content
- Ctrl + W – To Close the Windows Explorer or browser
- Ctrl + X – To Cut the selected content
- Ctrl + Z – To Undo the last action
- Ctrl + Y – To Redo the last action
- Ctrl – To drag/copy the selected item
- Ctrl + Shift – To create a shortcut of a selected item by dragging it
- Ctrl + Shift +Esc – To Open the Task Manager
- Ctrl + Shift+ Arrow Key- To highlight or Select a particular text block
- Ctrl + Esc – To Display the Start menu
- Ctrl + F4 – To Close the active document
- Ctrl + Click on Underlined Link – Opens the link in the browser
- ALT + D– To Select the address bar
- Alt + Enter – To View the properties for the selected item
- Alt + F4 – To Close the recent item/Program
- Alt + Spacebar – To Open the shortcut menu of the active window
- Alt + Tab – To Switch between the tabs
- Alt + Esc – Cycle through tabs in the order they opened
- Shift + Any Arrow Key- To Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document.
- Shift + F10 – To Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
- Delete – To Delete the content
- Shift + Delete – To Delete a particular item permanently including from the Recycle Bin as well
- Right arrow – Open the submenu/next menu to the right
- Left arrow – Close the submenu/next menu to the left
- Backspace – To push the cursor one position backward
- Esc – Cancel the current task
- PgUp – Move up one page at a time
- PgDn (Page Down) – To Move down a page
- Home – To Move to the starting of the content/document
- End – To Move to the end of the content/document
- Ctrl + Home – To access the first character
- Ctrl + End – To access the last character
Computer Function Shortcut Keys:
- F1 key – To Display Help
- F2 key – To Rename a particular item
- F3 key – Use to Search for a file/folder
- F4 key – Display the Address bar in My Computer
- F5 key – To Refresh the recent tab/window
- F6 key – Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop
- F7 key – To access spell check and grammar check in MS Word document, Outlook, etc
- F8 key – To access Windows Safe mode/Start Menu
- F9 key – To refresh a document
- F10 key – To start the menu bar in the recent program/document/tab
- F11 key – To Minimize or Maximize the active window
- F12 key – To open the Save As Option
Windows Shortcut Keys:
- Win – To Display or hide the Start screen
- Win + B– To Set focus in the notification area
- Win + D – To Show or hide the desktop
- Win + E – To Open File Explorer
- Win + H – To Open the Dictation Option
- Win + I – Open the Settings
- Win + K – Open the sidebar
- Win + L – Lock your computer
- Win + M – Minimize all windows
- Win + R – Open the Run Window
- Win + S – Open Search Bar
- Win + T – To scroll programs on the taskbar
- Win + X – Open the hidden menu
- Win + F1 – To access Microsoft Windows Help Center
- Win + left arrow/ Win + right arrow – Move selected tab/window to the right or left depends upon the arrow you choose
- Win + Tab – Open the Task view
- Win + PrtSc – To take a screenshot of the current screen.
- Win + Ctrl + Left Arrow/ Right arrow – To switch between the screens of virtual desktop
- Win + Ctrl + D – To Add a new virtual desktop
- Win + Enter – To Open Narrator
- Win + +/- – To Zoom in or out a particular item
- Win + Esc – Exit Magnifier
Useful Computer Shortcut Keys in Microsoft Word:
- Ctrl +B – To bold the text
- Ctrl + D – To Display the Font dialogue box
- Ctrl + F – To access Find Dialog Box to search a particular item
- Ctrl + H – To access the Replace dialogue box
- Ctrl + I – To Italicize the selected text
- Ctrl + K – To Create a hyperlink
- Ctrl + N – To Create a new document
- Ctrl + O – To Open a new document
- Ctrl + P – To give print command
- Ctrl + S – To save a document
- Ctrl + U – To underline the selected text
- Ctrl + Right arrow – To move the cursor to the starting of the next word
- Ctrl + Left arrow – To move the cursor to the starting of the previous word
- Ctrl + Down arrow –To move the cursor to the starting of the next paragraph
- Ctrl + Up arrow – To move the cursor to the starting of the previous paragraph
Useful Computer Shortcut Keys for Google Chrome:
If you actively use Google Chrome for your work and are not aware that there are useful computer shortcut keys for Google Chrome as well, here you can learn about them:
- Ctrl + E – To access the Search bar
- Ctrl + F – To Start the Find option
- Ctrl + H – To Open the History bar
- Ctrl + L – To Move your cursor on URL
- Ctrl + N – To open New Window
- Ctrl + O – To Open the Open dialog box (Google Chrome)
- Ctrl + P – To access the Print dialog box
- Ctrl + R – To refresh the current browser/tab
- Ctrl + T – To open the New Tab
- Ctrl + Shift + T – Reopen the recently closed tabs
- Ctrl + Shift + I – Open the Developer Tools /Inspect element window (Google Chrome)
- Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PgDn – Jump to the next open tab
- Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PgUp – Jump to the previous open tab
- Ctrl + Shift + N – Open a new window in Incognito mode
Also Read: Install Android Apps on Computer
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